


Immanentizing the Eschaton

by majortom



Series: Currere Sex [4]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Vulpes POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-09 00:29:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4326930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majortom/pseuds/majortom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Vulpes Inculta begins upon his nearly impossible, semi-treasonous path, and we finally find out about his damn Ranger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immanentizing the Eschaton

 

\---

 

The wind off the Colorado cooled the sweat on Vulpes Inculta's brow. Aurelius of Phoenix stood to the left of him, the Legate Lanius to the right. Caesar himself in front of them. Lucius and the Courier on either side. The people most responsible for the Legion's victory.

"Ave, legionaries!" Caesar's voice echoed off the ravine walls, met with a deafening cheer. "Mars has seen fit to bathe us in the blood of our enemies. The river runs red today!"

The subordinates cheered loudly. Vulpes allowed himself a small smile; the merest upturning of the corner of his mouth. For a man who never showed emotion unless it was calculated for a purpose, it was enough.

"Ave, Lanius." Caesar came to stand in front of the Legate first. "You have shown great bravery today, as you do all days, of course. For your success in taking Hoover Dam I will have a new helmet forged for you, steel plated with gold, so all that may come against you will see the shine in the eyes of Mars for miles."

Caesar stepped to him next.

"And Vulpes. Able leader of my Frumentarii. Without your, shall we say, particular acumen, we would have been fighting in the dark. As it is you gathered exceptional amounts of intelligence and at the same time struck the fear of the Gods into every profligate to hear the name Legion. Among certain other tasks, of course." Vulpes deepened his smile to a smirk. "You will have first pick of the slaves. I know how you like those NCR Rangers."

He responded quickly. "It is rewarding to watch them break, my Lord."

"Indeed." Caesar continued speaking to the others, but Vulpes only listened with one ear. The wind felt suddenly cold, and he repressed a shudder.

"Legion in aeternum!" Caesar declared. "Legion forever!"

\--

He walked slowly across the dam. He did not go back to the room he temporarily occupied. There was already a woman waiting there. Caesar thought it such a great gift he had her delivered that very night. The female ranger who had killed the most Legionaries, which other would Vulpes choose? The thought of it nauseated him. Wild eyes and gruff voice and spit and profanities. He used to enjoy such things. The moon shone on the water, a dull silver. It reminded him of her hair, even though it was the wrong color. He wanted to shake his head, put his face in his hands, but he did not. He was still in control of his expressions, if not his actual emotions. There was no reason for anyone to see him and think he was doing anything other than sentry rounds. Showing distress wouldn't help her. Nothing could help her now. She was too beautiful for this world, and always had been. The Gods had called her home.

He closed his eyes in embarrassment. Mortality and the moonlight was making him ignominiously sentimental. He looked toward to bright lights of New Vegas to try and distract himself. He found something better. The Courier. A woman who made as little sense as Servillia had. But unlike Servillia, he rather thought that the Courier's mystery would recede the more he knew about her.

"Courier," he said, startling her, "you look lost."

She tried to hide her surprise, but wasn't successful. "You can just call me Six. I'm not a courier anymore," she said in a monotone.

"So you aren't," he agreed. "What are you, I wonder?" Silence stretched between them. "I suppose you don't even know."

Six bristled. "Don't you have a Ranger to be getting back to?"

"She'll keep," he responded. She looked uncomfortable. He wondered exactly what was pressing on her mind. Most likely she felt purposeless now that the dam was won. If that was the case, she wouldn't respond to direct questioning. Indirect questioning, then. "Does it not bother you, imagining what I am going to do to her?"

She shrugged. "The fate of an NCR dog means nothing to me." He continued staring at her. Silence was a useful tool. "I don't care to imagine it, though," she admitted.

Vulpes smiled. "I have been waiting for this moment for a long time."

"The moment where you get to go rape your Ranger?" she spat.

He gritted his teeth and walked to the edge to lean on the low wall next to her. "The moment when you realize you have more in common with _my Ranger_ than you do with any man wearing red."

The Courier turned away, embarrassed. "How dare you?" she said quietly. "I have been honored today, as you have, by Caesar himself. And yet you question my allegiance."

"How could I not?"

"After all I have done--"

"All you have done makes no sense," he interrupted. "This is the only thing that does. That is why I knew it would come."

She turned to him now. "I fight for the Legion. I do as my Lord --"

"Exactly. You fight for the Legion." He looked her up and down slowly.

"And?"

"Don't play the stupid profligate with me," he said coldly. She opened her mouth angrily, but he cut her off. "I remember Nipton. I remember a girl whose eyes went wide seeing crucified bodies. That was the first time you surprised me. Young girl, scared expression. Yet the words you said to me were strong. Like a recruit. Not accustomed to the sight, but accepting of the truth. Of course, you did not know the whole truth then, did you?"

"And what is that, then?"

"Oh, you know it now. In Nipton you saw something larger than yourself. You saw strength. You saw justice, pure and true. You saw the corruption of the wasteland, and the fact that it can be stopped. But soon after, I imagine, you realized what you never saw."

"I'm tiring of this circular conversation, Vulpes."

"You never saw a woman in Legion armor."

"I guess I'm the first," she said. His narrowed his eyes. "Figuratively," she added. "I heard some things, obviously. But clearly it isn't that bad if Caesar had you deliver the Mark to me," she said.

"Caesar needed someone who could get into the Lucky 38--"

She stepped closer to him, invading his space. An obvious play for dominance. "The Lord Caesar never said a single word to me about being a woman. He assigned me tasks and expected me to carry them out. And I did. Very well. And he honored me today. Put my face on money so everyone could see it. He clearly has no problem with me."

"With you? No. He recognizes all you have done. You had... advantages, as a Dissolute--"

"Don't call me that," she snapped.

Vulpes cocked his head to the side. "But that's what you are. There are no women Legionaries."

She stepped back and looked away. "You need women. You can't have a society of just men."

"Obviously. We have many slaves. Some of us have wives back in Flagstaff. Understand, of course, that the term 'wife' does not mean 'equal'. Then are women that live what you would consider normal lives under Legion rule. But they are not Legion themselves. They and their ilk are called the Dissolute. Civilized towns that have been incorporated by the Legion do not get enslaved." Vulpes smiled wide, showing his teeth. "We're not monsters."

"Well. I'm not a slave. I'm not a wife. And I'm not Dissolute. So don't call me that."

Vulpes still didn't understand her. Servillia wasn't a slave. She wasn't a wife or Dissolute, either. She was above all those things. To her, those things might well not have existed. But the Courier was bound by anger to those words. She wanted to rebel against a society she wasn't even in. "Why do you want so desperately to be part of something that despises you? Do you want to be special? The only female legionary? A living legend?"

Six didn't respond right away, and the two faded into silence. A thought that had been living quietly in the back of Vulpes' mind for the last few months began to take shape. They looked toward the East as the dawn broke.

"Caesar's opinion is all that matters. And honestly," she said quietly, with a small smile, "I think once you're on the money, you _are_ a bit of a legend. Enjoy your Ranger, Vulpes."

She turned away from him, and he desperately wanted to hit her. He watched her go inside, and waited a few minutes before descending himself. He did need to do something about the Ranger. Hopefully she would be unspeakably ugly and no one would question him getting rid of her immediately. Maybe he should just kill her, because he certainly couldn't stand to have her around.

He never reached the room, however. It seemed as though Legion culture was determined to make it's mark upon the Courier as quickly as possible. He pulled out his 9mm and put down two of the Legionaries. "You saw this person being honored by Caesar this morning, so you thought good sport for the evening would be beating her?" he asked the remaining one.

\---

"Will she never stop getting herself into trouble?" Caesar said, quite rhetorically.

Vulpes answered anyway. "If not for her ability to get herself into trouble, we may not have been victorious, my Lord."

"Obviously, Inculta. I simply worry where her energy will go without the NCR to pit her against."

Lanius broke in gruffly. "Just kill her, then. Her usefulness is done."

Vulpes coughed quietly. "I very much doubt we could ever drain her of usefulness. For whatever reason, she is completely enamored with the Legion and also, if I'm not much mistaken, with you personally, Lord Caesar. Such loyalty is not something to be tossed away without consideration."

"Besides that," Caesar said, "she has indeed helped our causes a great deal. I do not punish success, Lanius." The Legate remained silent and impassive behind his new mask. "But you think we could have use of her yet, Inculta? I fail to see how. There is no longer a Lucky 38 to gain entry to."

"Killing House was not the only thing she accomplished for us. As to specific missions, I cannot say, but then I cannot predict what missions the future holds."

Caesar raised an eyebrow at him. "You speak as though you would like her in your Frumentarii."

Vulpes scoffed. "I do not suggest it. But that is certainly what she would like."

"She said this?"

"No, but I can read it in her. Perhaps not a Frumentarius, but a Centurion, or a Denacus at least."

Caesar laughed. "Put a woman into the Legionaries' tents? She can't possibly expect that." Vulpes only shrugged. "No, that is not what will happen. I will offer her homestead in Flagstaff, as I had planned."

"I doubt she will see that as a reward, my Lord. Also, while I am sure of her loyalty, her actions are not something that I can predict easily. I would caution against sending her to Flagstaff where no one will... anticipate her personality."

"What would you recommend then, Inculta?"

"If she wishes to remain on the frontier, I would advise you to let her. Who knows? As we push west and south there may be more Brotherhood bunkers to destroy."

"I can't just let her stay. I don't wish to be in the habit of employing mercenaries. If it weren't for her invitation to the Lucky 38 I wouldn't have ever contacted her. If she were to stay, she would have to become part of this society in some way. I will not have mercenaries become common practice."

"I defer to your wisdom, my Lord."

Caesar sighed heavily. "If only she were a man," he said.

They continued talking long into the night. Vulpes felt a trickle of hope; the first he felt since the Courier killed House, when he began to have the vague notion that it could be the beginning of a new age.

\---

She wasn't happy. Of course she wasn't. She wanted to be part of the Legion, and Caesar wouldn't let her. Servillia never needed to be part of anything, or be close to anything. Always aloof, always removed. Not like the Courier. The Courier was always present, always blowing things up and shooting weapons and demanding to be noticed. After all she had done, she still felt invisible. Could it be that simple? Vulpes doubted it.

"Leave us," he said to the doctor.

He sat on the chair next to the Courier's bed. "I guess we know who you are now, Six Inculta." She said nothing. "I imagine this is not what you hoped would come from that conversation."

"Don't you have a battle to prepare for?" she said flatly.

"I am not going to the battle. I am the leader of the Frumentarii, not a field commander."

He reached out towards her and she flinched away. Vulpes smiled wanly. "That's no way to repay me for my kindness. I saved you from Lanius."

"Right. I'm sure your Ranger will be pleased that your attentions will be divided."

He jerked his hand back. "Lanius might not have made the distinction between Profligate and Dissolute," he began.

"Oh, I'm still fucking Dissolute, am I?" Six laughed, but tears began streaming down her cheeks. "Lovely."

Crying. Vulpes hated crying. Servillia never cried. Only once. Only over life, not titles. "Stop that, it is most unattractive," he snapped.

"Like I give a shit at this point."

"As is cursing. But if you would let me speak, I apologize." She looked up at him. He was uncomfortable. "I misspoke. You are no longer Dissolute. But again. Lanius would likely not have made that distinction. He has no cares for the societal aspects of the Legion, only the freedom it gives him to satiate his blood thirst." He paused. "And the slaves, I suppose."

"And you clearly have no interest in slaves. Let me ask your Ranger what she thinks about--"

"The Ranger is dead," he said simply. "Or will be soon, I should say. I am a man of great talents, but I doubt I could wrangle you both at once."

She continued to argue, of course. Vulpes doubted the woman would stop talking until her final breath left her, and perhaps not even then. He smirked inwardly. She had already come back from the dead once to give someone a piece of her mind.

"You said last night. None of the things I did until now made sense. Because I'm a woman, fighting for the Legion. Now I see what you mean. Because this doesn't make any sense. You're making out like you're protecting me, like you want me to succeed in what I want. But why would you want that? You're Legion. I'm a woman. Why would you care at all about me?"

Vulpes didn't answer right away. The truth was far too dangerous to speak in this tent, and far too distant in the future for him to want to acknowledge, anyway. He recognized that his vision was nigh impossible. He might as well try to institute heaven on earth, or clean water for all the wasteland. He should, realistically, give up now. He should have given up as soon as Servillia died, or even before. Take his daughter and run far, far away. That is what she would have done. What she did do. It was the safest option for everyone.

He looked at the Courier. Battered. Humiliated. Discarded.

Angry. Fierce. Determined.

Perhaps that's what Servillia would do. But it wasn't what the Courier would do. And it wasn't what he was going to do.

"Perhaps when you answer my question, I'll answer yours."

Six grimaced. "Well. Whatever your end game is, I can tell you right now. You're never going to fuck me. I'll kill you first."

Vulpes nearly laughed out loud. Of all the ulterior motives he could have.

\---

Canyon Runner collected the NCR Ranger himself, while Vulpes stayed back at the Fort. He was glad. He hadn't wanted to see her.

\---


End file.
